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SER M. tion of the various degrees of it. So that Power is the fitness, or capacity of any thing to produce an effect. And when it is ascribed unto God, it is that perfection of his nature, by which he can do whatever he pleases, and hinder whatever he will not have done. Now as God is

the first cause of all things, from whom they have their being, and are made what they are, it is plain that he must be poffeffed of Power in the most eminent and tranfcendent manners because whatever power any other agents have; muft be derived from him; and he must have been poffeffed of it before they can acquire it. It must eternally and neceffarily have existed in him. And hence, when we confider him as the caufe of all prefent existence, and the fountain from whence all things must come, that can poffibly exift, we cannot but allow him to be infinitely powerful. This our reas fon plainly dictates to us, that God, the firft caufe of all things, the firft principle of all activity and power, must himself be infinitely powerful.

2. But when we reflect farther, on the amazing.inftances of his power in the univerfe, the many awful demonftra→ tions

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tions of it that are in his wonderful sER M. works, this will give us ftill a more affecting proof. Thus when we look up to the heavens, and fee thofe immenfe and glorious bodies, the fun, moon, and stars, revolving in their orbs, and placed at their proper distances, and performing their motions with the greatest re gularity, and how light is diffufed from the fun with an inconceivable fwiftness, and accompanied with heat to cherish and enliven the planets, we cannot but have awful fentiments of the power of him who made them. In like manner, when we contemplate the earth, the connection of its parts, its figure, and how it is compacted together, and equally balanced with land and feas, and fitted for the various feafons, from the changes of the heavenly influence, we may plainly fee the hand of the omnipotent Architect, Again, when we look round us, and observe that powerful principle of vegetation in plants and herbs, by which they grow, and come to their maturity, and are fitted for their various purposes, and that when they languish and decay in the winter, and are many of them buried in the earth, they revive and rife up with

new

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SER M. new vigour and beauty, in the spring; we cannot but admire the divine enliven ing power: or, when we behold the aftonishing number of animals that are placed on our globe, infinitely various in their fize, their conftruction, their figure, and manner of fubfifting; fome formed to creep or move on the earth, fome to live in the water, others in the air, and all fitted with a vast variety of subtil parts and fluids, and withal clothed pro perly for their state, having suitable food and nourishment provided for their various kinds; I fay, when a rational obfer ver fees all this, he cannot but be struck with wonder at the power of the Crea tor, who thus framed and endued all of them with a principle of life and action, fitted to their different orders: or, when we confider our own frame, how fearfully and wonderfully we are made, how we fubfift, how the animal life is preserved, and how the foul and body are so perfectly united as to make one confcious being, we may fee with furprise, the almighty power illuftrated even within ourselves; or laftly, when we reflect on the vast number of fuch intelligent and rational agents in the world, as every

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moment live and act by the divine influ- SER M. ence, and whofe faculties give us the image of God himself, we cannot but wonder at that incomprehenfible power, by which all thofe have their existence. The fcale of being, that rifes gradually from the lowest degree of fenfation to the highest and most exalted fpirits, gives us an amazing view of the extent of the divine creative power. And thus from these general inftances, befides an infinite variety of particulars, that cannot now be enumerated, the divine power is obvious to every obferver. Who can declare the mighty acts of the Lord, or fhew forth all his praife? All nature, in all her operations, is one continued illuftration of this divine attribute.

And as from reafon and obfervation, we fee that God must be infinitely powerful, fo the holy fcriptures often express this in the moft fublime and affecting manner. Thus at the creation, things are faid inftantaneously to have been brought into being, by the word of his power. God faid, Let there be light, and there was light; and God faid, let the earth bring forth grafs, the herb yielding feed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind,

SERM. and it was fo.

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And all the works of creation are thus faid to have been done at his command, which is the strongest representation poffible of his power. By the word of the Lord, fays the Pfalmist, xxxiii. 6. were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouthfor he spake and it was done, he commanded, and it flood faft. And elsewhere, his power is represented as irrefiftible and uncontroulable, and beyond all our imagination; who hath hardened himself against him, says Job, ix. 5. and hath profpered? -who shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble? who commandeth the fun and it rifeth not, and fealeth up the flars; who alone fpreadeth out the heavens who doeth great things paft finding out, yea, and wonders without number. And to the fame purpose, in the prophecies of Jeremiah li. 15. He hath made the earth by his power; when he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and be caufeth the vapours to afcend from the ends of the earth, he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treafures. And again, ch. v. 22. Fear ye not me? faith the Lord, will ye not tremble at my prefence, who have

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